Zombies have never been more popular, with hit television shows like The Walking Dead and movies like World War Z reanimating the genre in recent years.

But what's behind our fascination with the walkers and the biters?

Penelope Ironstone, an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, says it's tied to the very real fears we have in our contemporary world.

"Something we might consider to be frivolous and fun actually speaks to very significant and weighty issues of our time," she says.

Ironstone was recently asked to answer the question "What is the most likely cause of a zombie apocalypse?" It was posed by a Barrie man and his children through a public outreach initiative called The Curiosity Shop, presented by the Council of Ontario Universities.

In an entertaining video reply, Ironstone says the answer is likely some type of infectious microbe. Whether it's something brand-new or something that's returned after a long absence, it's something that we're not immune to.

Now, this isn't to say that a global pandemic will have the dead rising from their graves, but it could cause the sort of widespread deaths, panic and the collapse of social order that are the apocalyptic hallmarks of zombie tales.

Contemporary zombies are "figures that stand in for our anxieties about infectious diseases that we can't predict or can't contain," Ironstone says in the video.

It's worth noting that some of the most popular "zombie" movies, such as 28 Days Later, involve the spread of a virus as opposed to the dead coming back to life.

At a time when there are concerns about the spread of the deadly respiratory virus known as MERS into North America — and with the SARS epidemic of 2002 to 2003 in our recent memory — it's fitting that we turn to zombies as a way of working through our anxieties, Ironstone says.

The genre speaks to a range of fears, from the ease with which something can be spread via air travel, to the issue of climate change and whether it could expose potentially deadly microbes, Ironstone says.

The zombie ties-ins to real-world pandemic scenarios can be used for educational purposes, as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have done. They've created an entire Zombie Preparedness section on their website, with the idea that preparing for a fictional zombie apocalypse can help people ready themselves in the event of severe weather, natural disasters or a terrorist attack.

The educational benefits exist, Ironstone says, but she's concerned the approach could backfire.

"You can't necessarily predict how the message is going to be taken up," she says.

"I am concerned that something is coming. I am concerned that people won't take it seriously."

The Curiosity Shop, the initiative that prompted the zombie question, will be visiting Waterloo Region from June 12 to 14. Visitors will get the chance to ask a question they've always wanted answered.